Sur La Glace
by skygirl55
Summary: A Caskett Figure Skating AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Sur La Glace**

**A Caskett Figure Skating AU. 3 parts.**

* * *

Stepping out of the bathroom, Rick Rogers wiped the remaining dampness off his hands and onto his t-shirt. Then, he pulled the light cotton gloves out of the waistband of his pants, where he stashed them during his bathroom trip. He tugged on the gloves and the wiggled and stretched his fingers making sure they were on snuggly, but still allowed him full use of his hands. When he felt a tug on one of the cracks in the webbing between his thumb and index finger, he winced and cursed under his breath. His hands really were suffering that winter far more than others, which was odd because the temperature was average at best. Perhaps, he thought bitterly, it was just his advancing age. He wasn't the spry eighteen-year-old who could spend hours on the ice without even thinking twice—not anymore. His mid-twenties really were hitting him hard.

Sucking up his discomfort, Rick walked around the edge of the ice rink to where his partner patiently waited for him. She sat on a bench with her back to him as he approached. Generally, it was she who interrupted their practice for bathroom breaks far more than he. As he had been known to joke about her tiny bladder now and then, his interruption meant she was well within her right to tease him—and he expected that she would once they got going again. As for him: he would say that the lesson of staying up too late and trying to make up for the exhaustion with coffee was learned, but it probably wasn't.

"Okay, I'm good now. I promise next time I'll keep my morning coffees to only…hey." His voice fell into one of concern when his partner turned around to face him. Her lips were pressed tightly together, and her brow crinkled. As he had known her well over a decade, he knew her expressions better than anyone, and this one signified distress. "What's going on? What happened?" He'd barely been gone more than two minutes and they were alone in the rink. He very much doubted something too catastrophic could have happened except—oh. She was holding her phone. "Did you get a message from your father?"

"No, no; it's nothing."

She moved to put the device back in her bag, but he stepped forward and reached out for her arm. "It's not nothing," he pointed out. He knew Kate Beckett as well as he knew any other person on the planet, so he was quite aware of her tendency to suppress all her emotions. He was equally familiar with how it could affect her performance on the ice. Seeing as they were less than a month out from the Figure Skating World Championships, an event at which they planned to place in the top three, it was best that whatever was bothering her came out then, and not after several days of trips, falls, and missed transitions.

"C'mon—what is it?"

They stared at each other for about ten seconds before she let out a huffed breath and turned her eyes momentarily towards the ceiling. When she looked back at him, her distress had mixed with anger. "You know how I ended things with Brandon on Friday night? Well he…he texted me and it—never mind."

Rick's left hand closed around her bicep and he asked gently. "What did he say?"

She shook her head and looked away. For a moment he thought she'd brush him off again, but then she silently handed over her phone. Castle bit the index finger of his right glove so he could pull it off and actually use the phone. He swiped open the home screen and pulled up her messages. Brandon's was on top. Considering the preview started with, "You're such a bitch, Kate," he didn't have high hopes for the rest of the message, but he read it anyway.

Considering the hours they spent in each other's presence, it was inevitable that they knew significant amounts about each other's personal lives. From what Rick could recall, Kate had been seeing Brandon for about two months, though that was a misleading time frame as they had spent two long weekends away at workshops with the US National Team. If he recalled correctly, Brandon worked in finance—or something with money and numbers—and also had a busy schedule, so despite the fact that they were "dating" they hadn't spent too much time together. In fact, a few days earlier, when he asked if she had Friday night plans, Kate had informed him that she would actually be breaking up with Brandon because their training schedule didn't allow a lot of free time, and she found herself not invested enough in him to carve out more time for their relationship. "I just don't think we have much chemistry," she had said.

Reading through Brandon's message, he evidently felt differently. He thought that Kate was flirting with him and, in his mind, leading him on, which led to an aggressive string of insults within the message, criticizing her for being a tease without actually putting out. The longer it went on (the message took up the full screen size of her phone and then some) Rick began to feel nauseous. Brandon was an asshole, so he was glad Kate had chosen to end the relationship, but he also felt sick that his good friend was faced with so many unkind and untrue words.

Once he was done reading, Rick handed the phone back with the comment, "Wow; what a dick."

"Yeah."

As she slid the phone back into her bag, Rick could tell she didn't quite believe him, so he walked around in front of her and said, "I'm serious Kate; you know all of that was uncalled for assholery, right?"

She turned back to him, a bit sad. "But he's not totally wrong."

"About the fact that going out for more than four weeks means you have to have sex? Yes—yes that is totally wrong."

She shook her head quickly. "No, not that—I don't care about that. I mean what he said about the fact that I'll never care about anyone or anything more than I care about skating."

"That is also untrue," Rick said conclusively, as he had witnessed evidence to the contrary.

She chewed on her bottom lip as she walked towards the ice and leaned against the wall around the rink's edge. "It feels true. When we're in competition season like this, I don't think my focus can ever be on another person. My head is always here," she said, gesturing out towards the smooth pool of frozen water. "The next competition, the last one, what can we improve, how can we be stronger. I even think about it when I'm in the shower." She laughed, shook her head, and then gave a little guilty shrug. "Maybe I just shouldn't even bother dating; maybe I should just be like you."

He laughed and quickly said, "Oh well, that's definitely not the solution." He did have a self-proclaimed rule against anything but casual dating, but that was for several reasons. True, one of them was a lack of ample free time, but it was far from at the top of the list. Past heartbreak, witnessing all his mother's failed relationships growing up, and the unrequired love that not even his best friend-slash-partner knew about ranked far above free time.

"You shouldn't throw in the towel in dating because of one jerkoff, Kate. You just need to find the guy who gets it—gets you."

"Who only wants to go on one date a month," she chimed in.

He waved his hand casually. "Oh, come on now—I'm sure you can squeeze in two dates in a month."

She rolled her eyes. "Right. Anyway—we've wasted enough time on Brandon now so let's just get back out there."

As she reached down to pull off her blade covers, so did he. Sensing that she still seemed a little bit sad, he said, "Hey Kate? I'm really sorry."

She gave a half smile. "Thanks. Now are you ready?"

"I was born ready, Beckett."

She rolled her eyes and then reached out for his hand as they stepped out onto the ice together.

* * *

After finishing his cool-down lap, Rick stepped off the ice, walked the few steps towards the nearest bench, and collapsed down on it. He plunged his hand down into his duffle bag, pulled out a towel, and mopped the sweat that had accumulated at the base of his neck and around the collar of his shirt. They had worked hard that afternoon and he knew he'd be feeling it in his muscles the following morning, but he was proud of what they had accomplished. They had done exactly what they promised their coach; they were Olympic-ready.

When Kate finished her last lap, she stopped at the edge of the ice, but didn't step off. Instead she lifted her hand up to cover her mouth and gazed out across the rink as though the secrets of the universe were written somewhere in the space between the floor and the rafters. He caught the wistful look in her eye and knew exactly what she was thinking. Later, he would be thinking it too. Probably the moment he stepped into the shower all the emotions would come pouring out. He promised himself he'd keep them in check during that practice though, since if they leaned one thing over the years it was that if he lost control, she would spiral right along with him.

"Hey," he said softly, waiting until she looked over to him before continuing. "It's not over yet."

"But it's the last time we'll practice on this ice."

He felt his heart clench in his chest, as he still found himself heavily entrenched in denial. He knew once it was truly over—after the Olympics—he would go through the full range of grieving emotions. Saying goodbye to the thing he had done for fifteen years—well over half his life—was never going to be easy. Neither was saying goodbye to the person he'd shared it with, but he definitely couldn't think about that; he'd never get through the upcoming competition if he did.

When she finally did step off the ice, he saw the tears on her cheeks, and his heart clenched again. He stood and opened his arms saying, "Hey; it's okay. C'mere."

She sniffled and fell against his chest. "Sorry. I guess it's just hitting me how close this is to being over."

"Doesn't have to be, you know," he pointed out. Her retirement wouldn't be official until after the Games, which, as their coach had secretly told him on several occasions, gave them ample opportunity to talk her out of it. While Rick played along, he also knew his stubborn partner well enough to know that her mind was 99.9% made up. Still, he liked to wiggle his way into that .1% chance whenever the opportunity presented itself.

"No. My foot. I can't."

He rubbed her back one more moment and then stepped back, giving her a small smile. "You never know. Maybe if you take a year off then it'll-"

"No; I don't think it will."

Rick nodded and decided not to push further. She'd been fighting with the pain in her left foot for almost as long as he knew her, seeing as they were practicing together at the rink when she broke it originally. It was a fluke accident, with another skating couple crashing into her and her falling in just the right way. As she was so young, she bounced back fairly quickly, but ever since it had been prone to injury. She hurt it again the summer she was twenty by falling down some stairs at a rented beach house (later, she confessed to only him the incident happened after she'd had too much to drink). For the next few years, she had been stuck in the pattern of it getting better and then worse and then better once more. Doctors had suggested that a year-long rest might give her some permanent release from the pain she experienced, but Rick also knew her foot was not the only reason Kate did not want to compete anymore.

"I'm sorry," she said after a minute of silence between them. She brushed the tears off her cheeks and said, "I know you want to keep competing but-"

"No, no; it's not that," he said positively, even though her statement was not untrue. He enjoyed their partnership so much he certainly would not have been the one to end it, but he also felt that even if Kate's foot wasn't bothering her, she still would want to call her second Olympics her final. They had many discussions on the subject and he could not say he entirely disagreed with her sentiments about being burned out and wanting to change. He certainly wasn't going to be disappointed about not getting up at the crack of dawn, working out or skating for hours upon hours, and then going to bed only to do it all again the next day. Still, seeing as it was more or less all he'd known since they started competing at an elite level when he was sixteen, it was going to be an adjustment.

"You don't have to hide your feelings from me, Rick. If you're upset, be upset. If you're angry with me, be angry."

"I'm not angry; I never would be." He promised her.

She nodded, though did not look entirely convinced. She turned back towards the ice for a moment and then asked, "Will you skate one more lap with me?"

"Always."

He took her hand and they stepped out into the ice, gliding across it in their highly synchronized manner. As they reached the midway point, Kate shifted so that she skated backwards in front of him and said, "You know…Coach told me he was going to offer you another partnership after me. He didn't want me to be blind sighted, I guess. I don't know if he's said anything to you yet, but I want you to know it's okay with me."

Rick gazed down at her, as certain then as he ever was of the decision. Their coach had told him they would talk about it officially after the Games, but he had given him the head's up about two potential new partners. He hadn't said anything then, but he knew what his answer would be. "No—I'm not interested in skating with anyone but you."

For a moment, she looked relieved, but then turned to skate side-by-side with him and casually added, "You never know."

"I know," he said conclusively. He had for many, many years.

When his mother first suggested that he take skating lessons, eleven-year-old Rick had been utterly appalled. Why did he need to learn to skate? It wasn't like learning to swim, which could one day be a key factor in saving his life. Skating was dumb! Despite his protests, his mother did not give him a choice—especially since she needed him to go to the skating day camp while she was in rehearsals for her latest play.

By the end of his first day, Rick no longer hated skating. He could not conclusively say that he was a fan, but it seemed easy enough. Plus, he was in a group of mostly girls, and he loved girls—especially when those girls paid a lot of attention to him. As his training progressed, he tried jumps, which were okay, and spins, which made him horribly nauseous. Still, his natural talent for being on blades remained, and when a coach approached his mother suggesting he continue as a pairs skater, he didn't protest. Continuing as half of a pair meant he got to hold girls' hands, and what could be better than that?

Rick really wasn't sure how his casual skating beginning lead to becoming a competitive ice dancer. He just continually found himself in the right place at the right time, particularly a few years later on the day he was paired up with then twelve-year-old Kate Beckett. The skinny, too-tall-for-her-age girl could have been clumsy or awkward, but she moved as though the ice skates were merely an extension of her long legs. He was impressed by her, and later amused when she seemed to find him quite annoying. The second they moved together, though, it was magic—or so their mothers had both concluded once they stepped off the ice. He was paired up with a few different girls over the next few months, but always came back to Kate and soon their partnership was official.

Despite their differences and fifteen-month age gap, their on-ice partnership quickly morphed into a true friendship, which only boosted their ability to skate—and dance—as one. They practiced together for nearly a year until their first completion. They won easily, and both equally felt the competitive bug. From that point on, they moved up the ranks and were crowned the US National Champions the same year Kate graduated high school. Two years later, they won Olympic gold, and as they stood side-by-side on the platform, waiving to the crowd with one hand while holding on to each other with the other, Rick was certain of one thing: he was in love with her, and there was no one else in the world for him.

True, at just twenty and twenty-one they were quite young, but international competition had raised their maturity well above their years. (Well, hers was raised well above, his was probably only slightly.) Practically since they started competing coaches, competitors, and the media had applauded their passion and chemistry. She always brushed it off as passion for the sport. He liked to make jokes about good acting being in his blood, but the truth was their ice dances displayed passion because that's what he felt. Holding her close was exhilarating. It was one of the reasons why he hauled his exhausted body out of bed every morning; just so he could see her smile and hold her body close to his.

Of course, Kate had made it _very_ clear from the beginning that their partnership was platonic and nothing more. Even then as he admitted to himself his love for her, he did so knowing she didn't feel the same. But the hope was there; the dream.

Now, almost exactly four years later, as they skated hand-in-hand around the rink just as they had done thousands of times before, the hope remained. Perhaps, it was even just a little bit more than hope. Things had shifted over the prior year. She talked to him more about what she wanted in a relationship, the kind of love she wanted to find. Perhaps it was his blind optimism, but he truly believed she was feeling him out, trying to decide if he was really the man she wanted. He tried—he tried so hard to be the best man he could; to be good enough for her. He really felt that he could be. And it was one of the reasons he did not fight her decision to retire from competition, because she had said on many occasions that would be the point at which she was ready for a real relationship. True, it was a gamble, because if she didn't want him then there was a real possibility that they would no longer be a large part of each other's lives. Such a fate would be devastating, but in his mind the risk was worth the reward.

After two laps around the ice they returned to their bags and began to change out of their skates. He was ready before her, but he waited patiently with his hands in his coat pockets. When she slung her bag over her shoulder and gave him a nod, they made their way towards the exit, but before she pushed open the door, she turned back to him and said, "In case I forget to say it: thanks for being my partner for the past twelve years."

He smiled at her. "Ditto. I couldn't have asked for a better partner, Kate."

She mirrored his expression and sighed, "Yeah…me neither."

* * *

**A/N**: Thank you for reading!

this little AU ficlet was a product of some late night YouTube watching. It may or may not be inspired from a real figure skating duo...

2 more parts to this one :)


	2. Chapter 2

Walking side-by-side with her partner on the way back to the athlete's village, Kate Beckett felt her chest tighten with every step. Stupid—she was being stupid. Of course she didn't _have_ to say anything to him then, or even the next day. She could stick with her original plan and talk to him during the flight back. Or sometime after they were home. But then they'd had that _moment_ during dinner and she just…god! Why was everything so complicated?

Earlier that day they had completed their second and final Olympic ice dance and now proudly added a bronze medal to their large collection of accolades. Considering the USA was in good standing for the team competition in two days, collecting another medal seemed possible if not likely. Despite the fact that it was her left foot buckling during the free skate that had dropped their standings, Kate could not say she was overly disappointed in their performance that day. They were still one of the best ice dancing teams in the world and that was something to be proud of.

After the medals had been handed out, they went out for a celebratory dinner with some of their fellow competitors. As they drank and ate, they spoke about many topics, but when that days' competition came up, one of their foreign competitors made mention to their impressive chemistry on the ice. Rick thanked the woman politely, and then locked gazes with Kate. Instantly, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle. Perhaps it was the fact that she finished her second glass of wine, which she so rarely did, but in that moment, she was sure that his look signified something more. That was when she thought about saying something to him that night on their way back to the athlete's housing area, but, as was usual for her with matters of the heart, she was second guessing her decision.

"Hey, what's with the serious face?" Rick asked after they'd separated from the group they were walking with and were momentarily alone. "You're not still thinking about earlier today, are you?"

"Huh?" she replied. Caught partially off-guard by his question, she genuinely wasn't sure to what he referred.

"Kate." He stepped in front of her and placed a gloved hand on each of her shoulders. "Stop worrying about our stupid score. Gold, silver, bronze—who cares what color medal we got. The most important thing is: we got a medal and so many other people didn't."

Picking up on the gest in his tone, Kate rolled her eyes. "No—it's not that."

"I'm serious—I'm not disappointed. I never could be."

She nodded, appreciating the reinforcement of his sentiments, even though she had believed him the first time around. Earlier that day their music had barely stopped playing when she began to apologize to him. The second she felt her left foot collapse she knew instantly she'd cost them the chance at a gold medal and naturally began to beat herself up about it, even with the injury being something she couldn't control. Rick had been his classic self about it: kind and sweet, though jokey. He said he didn't care, and she believed him, even if she would continue to be disappointed in herself since they had fallen from first place to third because of her falter.

"I know and I promise I wasn't thinking about earlier. I…I was actually thinking about the future." She felt her heart briefly jump up into her throat, the prospect of saying the words she was about to nearly paralyzing her with fear, but there would always be an excuse not to be truthful or to try and suppress her feelings; it was time she faced them head-on even if for some reason he didn't feel the same.

"The future? Like…the team skate? Or when we get home?"

"When we get home. I, um… I know when we first get back we'll both want to decompress and unwind but I was thinking that, ah, maybe at some point we should go to dinner."

His nose wrinkled for a moment and then he laughed, saying, "Kate—you know we're still going to hang out even though we're not skating together, right?"

"Y-yes," she said a bit unconfidently for simply "hanging out" was not exactly the purpose of her invitation. "I mean, yeah, sure; we'll hang out. I just…I wanted something more official."

"We don't have to make 'official' times to hang out. I mean, it's going to be weird _not_ seeing you every day. Plus, now we can do things outside a rink like... bungee jumping."

"Wha—no." She shook her head at that absurd suggestion. "I don't want to bungee jump."

He grinned. "Why? We finally do all that stuff coach banned us from doing so we didn't get hurt. Bungee jumping, sky diving, snowboarding, wa-"

"No—no." She reached out and grabbed his forearm scolding, "Stop listing dangerous things. I don't want to do anything insane with you, I just want to go to dinner. A nice dinner."

"I know you hate fast food."

She nearly screamed at how much he was frustrating her by absolutely blowing up her attempts to ask him out. Throwing her hands out to the side she said, "No, Rick, I mean a real dinner. A proper dinner. With wine, and tablecloths, and those menus that are all…leather bound and nice."

He took a half step back from her, his brow crinkling in the middle. "That…that, uh, sounds like a date, Kate."

"Yeah," she said a bit weakly, bracing herself for the fact that he might start to laugh at her.

He didn't laugh, but the expression on his face did get progressively more amused. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

Her heart fluttered in her chest and she sucked in a deep breath. She held it for the span of two seconds before breathing out, "Yes, I am. What do you think about that?"

A dopey grin crossed his face and he sighed, "Well, I don't know...are you going to bring me flowers?"

"Wha…I…" Kate stuttered, too surprised by his comical suggestion to formulate a real response. Before she had a moment to compose herself and respond appropriately, he swooped in, rested his hands on her arms, and pressed a quick kiss against her lips. Again, her heart jumped into her throat, though for a completely different reason. She gazed up at the man before her, her partner, and watched him slowly smile. In that moment, she knew without question she loved him with all her heart and dared herself to believe for the first time that he loved her too.

They stared at each other for a few seconds before gravity pulled them back together. That time they shared a real first kiss with their arms around each other and their lips fully intertwined. When Rick pulled back a minute later, he brushed his nose against hers and groaned out, "Mmm yeah; I've definitely wanted to do that since I was seventeen."

"Wha…seventeen?!"

He hummed and grinned one of his classic smirks that made her want to both hug him and punch him. "Yep. Don't you remember the day your costume ripped and the whole rink saw your boobs? I thought…yeah I could kiss her."

She gasped, horrified. "What?! Oh my god; that's terrible!"

She did remember the day vividly as it was one of her most embarrassing moments ever. She had been so excited about the new halter-top costume she'd found for such a low price at a discount shop in southern Manhattan. As it turned out, the low price was due to poor construction. She felt the fabric separate behind her neck but did not initially realize her chest was fully exposed until she saw Rick's wide-eyed expression. Flustered and horrified, she'd then tried to escape the ice as fast as she could but fell in her haste and then had to scrambled to get up. To Rick's credit, he tried to help her, but her mortification clouded her judgment and she half punched him trying to get away. She spent the next hour crying in the locker room until she was sure everyone was gone, and she could slink out. Imaging that an event like that made Rick want to kiss her was equal parts shocking and mortifying.

If anything, Rick looked even more amused as he said, "No it's not. Boobs were my favorite thing back then."

To deflect the embarrassment away from herself she threw back at him, "Not much has changed."

He laughed. "True."

She scrubbed her hands over her face, trying to push the embarrassing moment from her mind so she could focus on the present. When she looked at him again, she said, "Can we please be serious for a second?"

"Sure."

"Are you... I mean... we're not…sorry." She huffed when once again words failed her. God, she was twenty-four—why was this so hard?

"Why are you so flustered, Kate?"

She shrugged dramatically and confessed the fear eating away at her for nearly a year—ever since she first admitted to herself that she had romantic feelings for him. "Because I...I'm afraid you're not interested in me. Not really. And then we probably won't be able to be friends any more and...and we still have one more competition round and the press tour and-"

"Beckett, stop spiraling," he said in the patient way he always did when she panicked before competitions.

"Sorry."

Stepping up to her once more, he again put his hands on her shoulders and began, "First: nothing will ever stop us from being friends; nothing. We're basically family at this point."

She stepped back, throwing her hands up in the air. "See that was my whole point. We're like siblings!"

He grimaced. "Oh god don't say that!"

"Why not?" she said, as it had been the relationship descriptor that they used many times during their early years of competition when hormones and personality differences led to heavy bickering that usually needed broken up by their coach or whatever parent was chaperoning them that day.

"Because calling us siblings makes the fact that I want to see your boobs again really creepy."

"Really?"

"Well yeah because then it makes it feel incest-y and-"

"No." She held up her hand to stop his explanation as she understood the creepy-factor he stated. "I mean: Really? You're attracted to me?"

He swooped in, that time putting his hands at her hips and pulling her closer to him. She gasped and pressed her hands flat on his chest. He then grunted, "What do you think?" before lowering his lips to hers once more. That time, her lips parted, and she took him in with a soft moan. He moaned in return, moving his hands down her back. When he gave her ass a squeeze she gasped and smacked him on the chest.

"Rick! We're in public!"

He smirked. "So? It's dark out."

She gave him a scolding look for a moment before asking softly, "This is really what you want?"

"Yeah...for a while. I had to...you know, keep it in check, keep it inside because of our partnership, all our competitions…and the fact that coach promised to castrate me if I touched you."

"What?!" she half-laughed, not sure if he was serious or not.

"Yeah...didn't he give the 'don't have sex' speech to you too?"

She shook her head. Her father had given her that speech when they first started traveling to competitions together without parental supervision, but the coach never had. "What did he say?"

"It was right around when I turned fifteen. He said something about getting hormones and developing feelings and that was fine if they were directed at the right place, not at you, because if we had sex, he'd castrate me."

"Oh my god!" she laughed.

He shrugged. "I mean, it wasn't really a problem then because you were still thirteen and that was...weird. But then after I saw your boobs and how cute you were when you were totally freaking out about flashing everyone, I was like, 'Oh that's what he meant.' But I was pretty good at compartmentalizing, especially when we were on the ice."

She shook her head, a bit amazed. "But that was so long ago."

"Yeah... but...I dunno." He shrugged. "I just always kind of hoped this was the future for us. I was actually planning on asking you out when we got home, but I'm glad you beat me to it."

"You were going to ask me out?" she asked a she felt the grin on her face spread so wide her cheeks began to ache. He hummed and brushed his lips over hers. She settled her hands at his waist and confessed, "It hasn't been that long for me. Really only the past year or so when I realized what we had was coming to an end and as much as I need the competition to end for my physical and mental health, letting go of you just seemed so... impossible."

She remembered the exact moment that it hit her—and the near panic attack that followed. They had just completed an international competition and had placed second by only a few points. They were in the airport, traveling back to the US with several teammates when one of the newer female solo skaters started chatting with her. She asked how long she and Rick had been partners, and when Kate told the girl, her eyes widened and she said, "That's longer than I've been skating! What's it going to be like when you guys stop skating together? I bet it'll be weird."

Though of course the girl meant nothing malicious with her words, for some reason they were an unexpected trigger in Kate's mind. She had already been contemplating the end of her professional career, but for some reason had not yet connected in her mind that the end of skating also meant the end of her partnership with Rick. They would no longer spend hours together daily. They would no longer have in-depth conversations during their frequent travels. She would no longer have the best friend she'd come to depend on, and such a thought nearly paralyzed her with fear.

As she thought about those feelings in the following days, she slowly realized that he was not just her best friend and confidant, but someone she cared deeply for; someone she simply could not imagine her life without. It took her a little bit longer for her to realize those feelings were romantic, not just platonic, and while they scared her at first, the more she thought about them, the more right they seemed. Though their original partnership had been determined by chance somehow she just knew they were supposed to end up together.

Still wearing his wide grin, Rick said, "Hmm…we've come a long way from me being a pain in your ass."

She grabbed at the sides of his sweater and promised, "Don't worry, you still are."

He kissed her again and then moved his lips to her jaw. In between light kisses he asked, "You think your roommate is up there?"

Catching his not-so-subtle implication, Kate poked him in the belly. "Wha—no! We're not having sex right now."

He whined. "Why?"

"We compete again in two days."

"So?"

"So, no. We're waiting." She wasn't sure how a sexual relationship would affect their performance on the ice, but with it being their final Olympic one ever, she did not want to risk messing it up just because they couldn't wait two more days to be intimate after waiting well over a decade to get to that point.

"We don't have to wait. Maybe my roommate isn't-"

"Stop." She cut him off before any more brilliant ideas could pop into his mind. "We're waiting—if for no other reason than I'm twenty-four and I no longer want to have college-dorm-style sex."

He opened his mouth to protest, but evidently changed his mind and instead said, "Fine; I suppose that's fair."

She smiled. "Good, because you don't really have a choice."

"Yeah, I know." He sighed though he still wore a smile on his face. Then, he put his arm around her shoulders as they continued to walk back to the dorms—together.

* * *

**A/n:** thank you all so much for your reviews

The final part will be up on Saturday :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3**

Standing in front of the hotel room bureau, Kate carefully unpacked the small overnight bag she had brought with her. She had not wanted to haul her huge luggage case or even her skating bag with her that night as both were cumbersome and obvious, and they were trying to be inconspicuous when they snuck out of the Olympic Village. Instead, she'd borrowed a small bag from a teammate and put in only the bare minimum to get through one night.

Glancing up, Kate saw the reflection of her partner doing the same with his backpack. She caught him at the exact moment he pulled out a box of condoms and placed them on the nightstand. At that sight, she could not help but let out a breathy laugh. She still found it hard to believe that not only had Rick managed to procure them an available hotel room in a city during the Olympics (he claimed to have called twenty hotels before finding a vacancy) but that they were really there, about to have sex for the first time.

"What are you laughing at?"

She turned around and leaned her back against the bureau, shaking her head a little. "Nothing. I wasn't laughing, really. Just… I'm just a little surprised by the situation, I guess. We had our last skate this morning, got silver medals for lunch, and now we're spending the night together for the first time, and I…" She paused to let herself embrace the moment and feel her heart swell with joy. "I realize now that I'm really not nervous at all…and it's nice."

He took a step towards her asking, "You're not nervous?"

She shook her head. There were many feelings swirling in her belly—excitement, anticipation, love—but none of them were nerves. The man before her was one she loved and trusted without exception and, yes, they were about to do something they'd never done before, but it didn't make her nervous. She was just…happy. "I'm not nervous at all."

"But you usually are?"

She bit down on her bottom lip, slightly embarrassed to confess. "Usually…I'm nervous and self-conscious about being naked in front of someone new."

A baffled expression crossed his face. "What? How? You're so athletic and-"

"That's just it," she chimed in. "I have muscles and not a lot of fat, so my breasts are small and my legs are kind of skinny. There have been some comments made that were...hurtful. But I know you'd never do that. Or at least you've seen me in my underwear enough that you know what you're in for," she added with a light laugh. When they first started elite competition and thus been forced to change their clothing together in tight quarters on occasion, she had been quite self-conscious and tried to hide as much of her body as she could. Despite Rick's tendency to be the court jester, he had never once teased or mocked her appearance or, really, drawn any attention to the fact that he was seeing her half-dressed, so after a few such events she never really thought about it anymore.

When it came to her intimate activities, Kate felt she had faced some sort of critique from every lover she had, even with the list being as short as it was. Wishes for her breasts to be larger or her hips to be less bony were voiced aloud and though she tried to maintain the attitude that she didn't care, the comments etched away at her confidence more than she liked to admit. She never once wondered if the man before her would make such a comment, for when it came to serious and important moments, no one she knew had a bigger heart.

Demonstrating this, Rick stepped forward with a very determined look on his face. "Okay first: you're beautiful. End of story. Second, you already know I love your breasts."

She chuckled. "Right."

"And third none of that matters because I love you."

She smiled at the sentiments he had expressed for the first time a day earlier, just before the team competition began. She happily reciprocated them at the time, and had no trouble doing so again.

"I love you, too." She stepped forward and gave him a sound kiss, which he broke surprisingly early. He sat down on the end of the bed and brushed his hands over his face. "What's wrong?" she asked, slightly concerned.

He gazed up, a bit uncertain. "It's... well, I guess it's a bit ironic that you're not nervous even though you usually are, because it's the opposite for me."

She sat down beside him asking, "You're nervous? Why?"

"Because... I've never been in a relationship that's such a big deal before. Almost all my past experiences were casual with a 'no pressure let's so where this goes' attitude but this? I guess I'm nervous about it not working out or. What if... what if we're not sexually compatible?"

Kate's brow rose with shock; she didn't even think his last concern was possible for them as their dances on ice had always felt as though they could have been precursors to a most intimate act. "What? Really? I mean when we dance—"

"No, no I mean not in the long term." He huffed out a breath and gazed over to her with his brow deeply creased. "What if we've been building all this time to this moment but once it's here, it's…gone."

She shook her head as she looked at him, "I don't think that's going to happen."

"I don't want that to happen," he confessed, his voice a little desperate.

"So we won't let it." With that, she stood and turned around so that she could climb up onto the bed straddling his lap. She wound her arms around his neck and pulled him into a searing kiss. He let out a groan of delight and banded his arms around her waist to pull her even closer to him. With her fingers skimming through the hairs at the back of his head, she rocked her hips against his and immediately felt the heat swirl between her legs.

When Rick moved his kisses down her jaw and across her throat, Kate shut her eyes and arched in to him. A smile crossed her face as his hand slipped up the back of her shirt, increasing their skin-to-skin contact and she realized that—thankfully—their intimacy was not at all strange or awkward to her. It was almost as though their skating partnership was between two different people—two people who couldn't think of each other sexually due to the complexities of their job. But they weren't those people any longer; they had left them behind on the ice that morning, and now they were free to be the couple they both desired.

Fueled by those blossoming feelings, Kate hurried to pull up the hem of her shirt, only leaning away from him long enough to pull the item free of her head and toss it aside. Then, not wanting to waste any more time, she quickly moved her hands behind her back and flicked open the claps of her bra. She let the item fall off her shoulders before giving it a toss as well. Rick gaped at her, clearly surprised by the swiftness of her actions. It took him a moment to recover, but when he did, he skimmed his right hand up and over her ribs so he could cup her breast.

"Are they just like you remember?" she asked with slight amusement.

"No." He hummed, gave her breast a little squeeze, and then moved his lips to her collarbone, muttering, "They're so much better."

She grinned and shut her eyes while his lips made a journey southward. She anticipated feeling his mouth on her breast so much that she actually let out a yelp of surprise when instead he stood up from the bed with her in his arms and then turned to flip her on her back on the mattress.

"Oh! Rick!"

"What?"

She shook her head and reached down to pull the hem of his shirt up towards his chest. "Nothing I just forgot how easily you can pick me up."

He blinked down at her. "It's literally my job."

She laughed. "I know but...now we're naked-ish."

He grinned. "Yeah speaking of—let's keep working on that." He pulled his t-shirt off and then threw it on the floor beside her bra. He moved his hands to the button on his jeans and she sat up and helped him with the zipper. More than a little eager to see all of him, she roughly tugged down on the pockets to help him remove the item.

When both his jeans and boxer-briefs were down far enough to let his erection spring free, Kate eyes went wide and she let out a mixture of a gasp and a surprised laugh. Their bodies had been mashed together in every conceivable position over the years, many of which involved her being in and around his legs. She had never once felt him—at least, not that she was aware—but given his size she found that immediately baffling. Looking up at him she stammered, "Wha—how—how have you been hiding that in your tights all these years?"

He laughed as he leaned down to pull his pants away from his ankles. "Like what you see, Kate?"

"More…surprised I never noticed it before…"

He hummed and reached out for the button on her pants. "Well, I guess I'm what they'd call a 'grower.'"

She quirked one eyebrow. "No kidding."

He pulled the jeans off her legs and then gazed down at her very seriously. "Are you complaining?"

She reached out for his forearms and pulled him back on top of her, sighing out, "Never," just before she kissed him. She shut her eyes and relaxed back against the pillows as his hands skimmed down to remove her final item of clothing, never feeling happier with her decision to take a leap of faith on their relationship.

* * *

When Kate awoke the following morning, the first thing she was aware of was pain in her left foot. She groaned at the familiar ache and rolled over, trying to go back to sleep, when her hand came in contact with something warm and soft. Startled, she opened her eyes, to see the smiling face of her partner. She let out a breathy noise that mixed surprise with amusement and then settled down with her hand tucked beneath her cheek.

He reached out, brushed some hair back from her forehead and sighed out, "Good morning."

"Morning," she echoed.

He dusted his hand down her bare arm and she felt her body shiver, not just from his touch, but from the way he gazed at her. One would have thought she was a deity he worshiped from the adoration and devotion he expressed; she had never had someone look at her that way before.

"Did you sleep okay?"

She yawned but then nodded. "I think so…but I probably should have iced my foot before we fell asleep."

He frowned. "It's bothering you? I'm sorry," he added when she confirmed with a nod. "Speaking of last night—what are your thoughts?"

She almost laughed. "Fishing for compliments this early, Rogers?"

His brow wrinkled slightly. "Actually, no. I was actually asking from the standpoint of: you don't think it was…a mistake?"

Her eyes widened incredulously. "Mistake? What part of rounds one, two, or three would make you think I thought it was a mistake?"

He raked his hands back through his hair. "I don't know. I don't know why I'm so nervous. I…I'm just scared that now that it's the morning after we released all this pent-up passion, that-"

"Rick." She reached out for his hand and gave it a tight squeeze. "None of this was a mistake. It's just…the next step in our lives."

He smiled and brought her hand to her lips so he could kiss her knuckles. "I agree. In fact, there was a point last night when I wondered why we waited so long, but I'm also glad we did."

She hummed and yawned again. "There are far less complications this way."

"Well, yeah," he said in an isn't-it-obvious way. "There's no way I could have skated with you without wanting to have sex with you."

She arched a dubious eyebrow at him. "Really? There's no way? No possible way you could have accomplished that?"

He grinned. "Nope. Especially not back when you were 18 and I was 19...I wouldn't have gone more than five minutes of practice without wanting to rip your costume off."

She shook her head at him. "Amazingly enough I think that was Coach's entire point."

He shrugged. "Probably." Then he pulled her closer to him and she re-arranged herself so that her head rested on his chest.

As Kate settled in and closed her eyes, she found herself unexpectedly flashing back to the only other time they had shared a bed together. Though they shared a hotel room many times while traveling for competitions, they had only actually shared a bed once: the night Kate's mother had died as a result of a car accident.

They had been practicing when their coach stopped their music in the middle of a song and told Kate that her father had called, and she needed to get to the hospital immediately. She had rushed out in a panic, still in her skating outfit, leaving the bulk of her belongings behind. When she arrived at the hospital to find her father crying, she knew the news wouldn't be good, but she had never expected her mother to have die so suddenly; it just didn't seem possible.

Hours later she was at home, still in a state of shock. Her phone displayed twelve missed calls from Rick, but she didn't have the emotional capacity to call him back. At some point he showed up at her apartment under the guise of returning her bag. Her aunt, who had come over to be with them, had let him in. The moment she saw him, she tried to explain, but only sobs had come out instead. She remembered him sitting with her on the bed, but not much else until the next morning when she woke up curled against him. In hindsight, she should have seen that morning when she felt comfort from his presence as a sign of what was to come, but it made sense that she had not due to her overwhelming grief.

The months that followed that event had been some of the hardest of her life. She took a break from skating and continued with school, though in a zombie-like state. Though they weren't training together, Rick still checked in with her every few days, even with him being busy with his own schoolwork plus the novel-writing he did on the side. He made it clear he was ready to skate again whenever she was and though he nudged occasionally, he was never overly persistent. He gave her time, but thanks to his friendship she had made it through.

That time had been over five years earlier, but in that moment, she was reminded of the fact that with him by her side, anything seemed possible.

After dozing for half an hour more, Kate awoke again and shuffled to the bathroom. When she returned to the bed, she began to dress as he watched her, propped against pillows with his fingers clasped behind his head. "You wanna order breakfast?"

"Mm no; we should be getting back."

He grumbled and sat up. "But this is, like, the best morning ever; I don't want it to end."

She smiled. "It's not ending just…going on hiatus for a few days until we get back home."

He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her back onto the bed and saying, "Speaking of… let's move in together."

"What?!"

He gazed at her steady and confident. "When we go back home—let's move in together. I know you want to take a little time off—we both do—but you also said you want to go back to New York and finish law school. I want to actually try and finish writing a book for once and I can do that anywhere so...so let's get a place in New York together."

Kate shook her head, trying to process his words. For the prior three years they had lived and trained in Montreal for most of the year which provided them access to the best coaches and choreographers for their competitive careers. Yes, New York was her home, and she did have intentions to go back, but she also did not plan on packing boxes the moment their plane landed. Even if she had, she had already arranged to live with her father for at least a little while until she figured out her next steps. Though she had not entirely thought about it, the fact that Rick intended to join her back in Manhattan was a wonderful one, but in her mind he was jumping the gun quite a bit.

"We haven't even been on one date yet, and you think we should move in together?"

He waived his hand dismissively. "Who cares about dates? We've spent half our lives together. I know basically everything about you—including that I'm the fourth man you've slept with."

She gave him a challenging look. "Thereby proving my point because you're actually the fifth."

He squeaked with annoyance. "What?! No way!" Holding out his left hand in front of him, he began to list her former beaus. "There's the grunge rocker who took your v-card. That annoying d-bag you met first weekend of freshmen year. That Liam dude from your law classes. And Frank what's-his-face whose sister is a skater."

Kate found herself momentarily unsettled by the accuracy of his list, before getting back to the issue at hand. "Right—that's four and you make five."

Castle looked down at his hand for a solid five seconds before laughing. "Shit—that is five! Okay, I can't do math, but I'm still right; I know everything about you."

Despite his grin, she shook her head. "It's a little disturbing, actually."

"No," he corrected, "it's great."

She reached out and took his hand, giving it a solid squeeze. "Listen, Rick, I…I don't even know when I'm moving back to New York yet and even if I did, I don't think living together immediately is the answer here. This is new for us so let's at least try to take a somewhat traditional path, okay?"

He nodded, though he was obviously reluctant to do so. "That's fair, I suppose. I'm just…really happy."

She leaned in and kissed him sweetly. "I'm happy too."

* * *

Rick pulled open the door to the rink and was immediately blasted in the face with chilled air. Unlike some, he didn't cringe or shy away from it; instead, he confidently stepped forward with a smile on his face. After all the years he'd spent on the ice, that familiar chill simply felt like coming home.

Thanks to staying up into the wee-hours on a writing binge, he hadn't even stirred when his wife got out of bed. When he finally awoke, he saw the note she'd left on the nightstand, and though she provided no more detail than, "Gone to workout, be back later," he knew exactly where she would be, so he pulled on some jeans, grabbed his skates and keys, and headed out the door.

The rink wasn't open to the public that early in the morning, only for skaters practicing with coaches, but he and his partner had racked up enough accolades that they virtually had a lifetime all-access pass, particularly since that rink was the one at which they met and practiced for so many years.

After waiving hello to the manager on duty, Rick shed his sneakers and laced up before walking to the edge of the rink and watching the love of his life glide by just as effortlessly as ever. He took a moment to watch her, the familiar arch of her arms and sweep of her legs disrupted by the new roundness in her belly, but even that brought a smile to his face. Over fifteen years had passed since the day they first skated together and he knew he'd never skate with another, but that was okay; he didn't want to.

Practically from the moment they became an official, romantic couple, their relationship had been just as perfect as they both hoped it would. Their transition from partners on ice to partners everywhere else was as smooth as it could be considering the major life shift they were both experiencing. Perhaps if they had not known each other as well as they had, they would have struggled, but honesty and communication was natural between them, which enabled them to help each other transition from full time athletes to "regular" people, as her father had described.

Within three months of the Olympics they were back in Manhattan, though they were living at their respective parents' places. As much as Rick wanted them to live together, she was still resistant and forced him to hold out almost three more months before she finally agreed to live with him, and they bought a place together using the money they had earned with sports endorsements in the wake of their Olympic success. As per usual with his overzealous tendencies, Rick wanted to propose to Kate after just one month of living together. He'd even hinted quite heavily one afternoon when they passed a jewelry store while walking down the sidewalk. Kate had immediately turned to him and said in a dangerous tone, "Don't you even think about it—not yet." At first, he was annoyed, but then he realized that was unfair. He had been in love with her for many years, but to her, their relationship was much newer. He also knew her well enough to know that in the wake of her mother's death, she struggled to trust and love, and he needed to give her the time to accept that their love was forever. Thankfully, he only had to wait another half year before she quietly told him she was ready for him to propose whenever he wanted.

Though Rick had wanted to get married right away, Kate put off the wedding due to the fact that she was so busy with her new legal career she barely had enough time to sleep and eat let alone plan a wedding. They managed it, though, and were married for almost three years before he started dropping hints about wanting a child. He'd expected her to protest and use her career as an excuse, but instead she'd enthusiastically agreed, and it had only taken them two months to get pregnant. Now with their son on the way he knew their lives were about to shift again, and he couldn't wait, because he knew that their partnership could withstand anything.

When Rick did finally stop watching his wife and glide onto the ice, he did two laps around the outside edge to warm up. Then, he skated up beside her and reached out for her hand. "Morning, love," he said gently.

She smiled at him, her cheeks slightly pink, her eyes sparkling. "Morning yourself. You got to bed late last night."

"Sorry if I woke you."

She shrugged. "If it wasn't you, it would have been my bladder. So you think this one is going to be another best seller?"

He smiled, forever thankful that his wife was his biggest fan, which was the exact reason he'd dedicated his three previous novels to her and planned on doing the same with the fourth. "Hopefully, but enough about that." Pulling her in close he asked, "Which old routine do you want to dust off this morning?"

"Oh I don't know…" She huffed out a breath and put her free hand on her stomach. "I'm feeling kind of…off balance."

"Has Alex grown a lot since last week?" he asked with slight amusement.

"No, I don't think so. I think he's just resting himself against the outside now." She stroked her hand down the center of her stomach and then gave it a little pat. "Maybe he's mad at all the spinning and twirling I've subjected him to."

He hummed and gave her hand a squeeze. "Well, I'm going to miss skating with you—even if it is temporarily."

She skated around so she was in front of him and traveling backwards. "Oh, I'm not stopping—we just can't do anything fancy."

He grabbed her hips and pulled her in for a quick kiss. "I can live with that."

She smiled, brushed her thumb against the under side of his chin, and then moved so they were side-by-side once again. They made another lap before she smiled up at him a bit wistfully and said, "I can't wait until we teach him to skate here."

"Me either." He gave her hand a squeeze and gazed down a her lovingly, knowing that he looked forward to each and every one of life's adventures with her.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading!**

**Up next is my summer ficathon chapter story, A Matrimonial Accord, coming to you 3 weeks from today!**


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